“Today our lord Ram has arrived, he has been waiting for centuries “. On January 22, 2024, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a Hindu temple dedicated to the god Ram in Ayodhya, in the northeast of the country. In scenes of jubilation and saffron-colored celebration, thousands of Hindus from all over the country celebrated the inauguration of the Ram temple on a site where a Mughal mosque once stood. Televisions across the country broadcast the event.
The presence of Narendra Modi owed nothing to chance. The omnipresence of the Hindu religion even in the highest echelons of Indian politics and the desire to establish Hindu hegemony in defiance of religious minorities have a name: Hindutva.
Today embraced by those in power, this ideology has not always had first place in a country where “ secularism » (secularism) has been enshrined in the constitution since 1947. The subject is at the heart of the general elections which take place until June 1.
► When did Hindutva appear?
Although used since the end of the 19th century, the term “ hindutva », from Sanskrit, has its modern roots in a work by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar published in 1922: Hindutva, who is a Hindu? (Hindutva, who is Hindu?). This book laid the foundations of Hindu nationalism.
Hindutva thinkers developed their ideology in the context of the struggle against British colonization and the Westernization of Hindu society. Their struggles center around religious and societal demands.
In a work published in 1993 (1), Christophe Jaffrelot, political scientist and specialist on India, explains that Hindutva “ was conceived as an ethnic community concept “. The Hindu community, according to this ideology, constitutes the “ matrix » of the Indian community while Christians and Muslims are only patchwork.
► How did it spread in Indian society?
Hindutva is structured around an essential organization, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the National Volunteer Association. Founded by an activist and doctor, Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, this nationalist paramilitary organization, created in 1925, largely participated in the diffusion of ideology across the country and the population.
For years, the RSS established a movement similar to the fascist youth of the 1930s in Europe. This paramilitary educational group was intended to shape the mentalities of young Hindus from an early age.
It was within this movement that Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India since 2014, was formed, and it is from him that he would emerge as a major political figure years later.
► Indian independence and development of Hindu nationalism
It was in independent India, which was built after the partition of India in 1947, that Hindu nationalism developed considerably. The number of RSS members exploded and political parties close to the organization began to win local elections from the 1950s.
The suspension of civil liberties and the establishment of a state of emergency by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi between 1975 and 1977, against a backdrop of accusations of electoral fraud, propelled nationalist movements forward. Many Indians, who no longer find what they need in the traditional Congress party (that of Mahatma Gandhi), are becoming radicalized and turning to Hindu nationalism.
It was following these events that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, literally “ Indian People’s Party ), an organization now in the majority in Parliament and led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. She first came to power in 1998 and has been there since 2014.
► How is Hindutva reflected in the exercise of power by the BJP?
In power, the BJP will increase threats to public freedoms and the rights of minorities: Law which integrates religious criteria in obtaining Indian nationality; violent speech against Muslims calling them “infiltrators”…
Hindutva in power thus marginalizes non-Hindu Indians, particularly those of the Muslim faith, a little more every day. However, they represent a little more than 16% of the population, or nearly 200 million people.
(1) Hindu nationalists, Christophe Jaffrelot, Presses de la Fondation nationale des sciences politiques, 1993
